The Woes of Martha Medlaire
by AkireEnidan
Summary: The Dark Lord had many victims. A lot were killed for fun. Some were killed because they were his enemies. A certain one was killed because this person was the on he had almost came close to loving. Listen to Martha's story.


The Woes of Martha Medlaire

**Author's Note: So, I'm presenting to you my first fan fiction, and I hope that this will turn out okay. Right now, I only have a vague idea of what this story is going to be, and it's going to follow Martha's life through Hogwarts. You might be thinking, this is going to be another boring OC story, not worth yout time, but trust me, it is! I have posted fan ficiton before but feel that it wasn't up to my standard, so I deleted them. So this time, I'm going to make sure that the story will be top notch. Please no flaming, if you want to insult the story, at least do it politely. Please review, tips on how to improve and other constructive criticism will be much appreciated! And, if you have read the note up till the end, I have to say I'm impressed! I never saw the point of author notes until I started writing stories myself!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't have to save up for Samsung Galaxy Note, or an iPad, or an iPhone. *sigh* I can only wish. I only own Martha Medlaire, her family and other OCs which will appear in this fanfiction. **

Prologue

Martha's father looked at her expectantly. He was waiting for her to say something. Martha tried to speak, yet no sound came out when she opened her mouth. She knew that she should have been watching out for this, her father was bound to know that all the mysterious deaths, disappearances and 'accidents' were something to do with wizards. It was all too strange, all too unexplainable, even the Muggles could not find any reasonable answer to fit things into their perspective. She looked up to see her father grimacing at her. He looked impatiently at her, and Martha felt guilty that she hadn't told him anything. But she knew it was the right thing to do. The less he knew, the better. It was her family's life she was protecting after all!

"Martha, you owe me an explanation. I'm waiting." Her father said in a grave tone. He hardly used it, because it was usually reserved for occasions like this.

"I can't tell you. I'll be putting you in more danger if you knew!" Martha let out a strangled cry, and was on the verge of crying. She just couldn't bring herself to tell him and the rest of her family, especially if they knew that all the happenings had been partly her fault! Oh, what would Mother say if she was here? Would she defend her daughter, or agree that her father had a right to know about all the happenings?

"How? How would you put me in danger? I'm your father, for heaven's sake! I'm the one who is supposed to be protecting you, not the other way round!"

"You don't understand. There's just things you don't understand." she muttered. Now she was truly in danger of crying. These were the exact words that her father had told her years ago before the demise of her dear, loving mother. Oh, how she wished her mother was by her side. Even though she might have agreed that Martha had to tell her father about the state the Wizarding World was in recently, she would understand, seeing that she was a wizard. She would know the impact of the Dark Lord's doing, the fright and tension in the air whenever wizards were out in the open, knowing that they and their loved ones were at stake, whether or not they were blood traitor or Muggle-born. She looked down at her feet, not wishing to meet her father's gaze. There was a long and awkward silence, when finally, Martha's father broke it.

"Very well then, feel free to talk to me when you feel like it." Her father trudged back into his room, his voice filled with anger and hurt. She knew she had hurt his feelings, by not telling him, but what was the point? If she told him, that would make matters worse, he would be a much easier target for the Death Eaters. She knew her father. He was stubborn. Very. He would do something rash, he would want to fight. He would want to protect her in any way he could, thus putting him in a dangerous situation. He had no magic. How was he supposed to defend himself when fighting the Death Eaters, or even worse, the Dark Lord himself? He never went down without a fight. But then again, if she didn't tell him, he would still do something rash, just in desperation to know everything that Martha had been trying to cover up from him for years…..but that was better than him knowing everything, right? Right? She was lost in her own train of thoughts when someone interrupted.

"Martha? Are you alright? Why is Dad angry with you?" a sweet voice resounded in the air. Martha turned her head around to see Lucy, who had just turned thirteen. Martha just stared at her sadly. She deserved a better birthday than this. She was supposed to be innocent and carefree, living a normal life. Instead, she had to live in a world where everybody was living in fear of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. It was unfair. Like everything that had happened to her: Her mother's demise, her father's insistence to know the truth….even Tom…Martha shook her head. No use thinking about that now.

"It's nothing, Lucy. Go to bed, it's very late now. You ought to get a good night's sleep, after all, you don't want to be late tomorrow, especially during the start of term, don't you?" Martha said.

"No way. I'm your sister. You have to tell me what happened, and I won't leave until you tell me." Lucy folded her arms and looked all pouty. She could turn from sweet to stubborn with a mere blink of the eye. She had inherited her father's stubborn streak. Martha rolled her eyes and told Lucy to go to bed once more. But of course, Lucy didn't go away. She stayed put in her position, not budging.

Martha sighed and said in a resigned voice, "It was about You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters, okay? Dad wanted to know what was going on, what with all the happenings lately. You know I couldn't tell him. It would be too much for him to take, and furthermore, telling him would put him at risk. So Dad walked away, and is still angry and hurt that I don't want to tell him. He'll come round though, he always does. He will finally see that I'm right and doing it for his own good." But Martha knew that her last sentence was a lie. He would never come round. He would grow cold and distant towards her, he would fail to see that Martha's actions were in fact keeping the whole family safe.

"Oh, I see. But did it ever occur to you that Dad's ignorance would also lead him towards danger? Think about it." Lucy said.

Martha had to appreciate her sister's quick wit. She was always the smarter one, even though she was in Gryffindor and Martha was in Ravenclaw. She knew that Lucy was partially right, but her pride and her insistence that Dad would not know anything held her back from admitting that she had been if not a little bit, wrong.

"I'm keeping Dad protected in any way possible. I'm not letting him out of my sight, and that's better than Dad being used as bait by the Death Eaters. Now go and get some rest, you'll need it."

And with that, Martha went up to her room. She knew that what she was doing was for her and her father's own good, but a little thought kept on haunting her. Was she doing this just because she didn't want her father to know that she was partly the fault for the Dark Lord's rise? Was she doing this just so her father would not know the part she played? Was she doing this just so her father would not know that she almost became a Death Eater? Because if she told her father the full story, of course her participation in the Dark Lord's rise would come up, and she might go the same way as poor Elizabeth…

The next morning, there were three dead bodies in the house. The Muggle police had been called to investigate the case, but all they could garner from the investigation was the presence of a very dark symbol on the top of the house, and their peaceful expressions on their faces when the three victims were sleeping. There was one book that held all the answers to the mysterious killings, but the police could not make sense of it. It was finally passed down to Rhoda, a childhood friend of Martha.

This is Martha's story.


End file.
